Oral irrigators for discharging a high-pressure fluid stream into a user's oral cavity are well known in the art and are useful for promoting oral hygiene and health. For example, a particularly effective oral irrigator is disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/749,675 which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety into the present application.
It is advantageous for an oral irrigator to discharge a fluid stream at a select pulse rate that is generally constant. For example, a particularly useful constant pulse rate is 1200 cycles per minute.
Depending on the user and the part of the oral cavity being impacted by the fluid stream, a high-pressure fluid stream or a low-pressure fluid stream may be preferred. Thus, it is preferable to offer oral irrigators with an ability to vary the pressure of the fluid stream discharging from the oral irrigator. Prior art oral irrigators have attempted to meet this need by adjusting pumping speed. Unfortunately, this approach results in an inability of the oral irrigator to provide a generally constant pulse rate.
There is a need in the art for an oral irrigator that offers discharge pressure control while still maintaining a generally constant pulse rate. There is also a need in the art for a method of controlling the pressure of a fluid stream discharging from the oral irrigator while still maintaining a generally constant pulse rate.